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Rural district councils were created through the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, and were eventually abolished after the partition of Ireland, by the Local Government Act of 1925.

Birr Business and Professional Women’s Club was formed in the County Arms Hotel, in November 1967. It was the first business and professional women’s club to be formed in Ireland outside of Dublin.

The firm of Robert Perry & Co. originally began life in Clara, King’s County. Henry Robert Perry took a lease of the Street Mill in Clara and formed the company Robert Perry & Co., Clara Mills in the 1840s or 1850s. The company was named after his father, Robert Perry, who founded Rathdowney Brewery in 1831 which brewed Perry’s Ale. In 1859, Henry Robert purchased Belmont Mills from Captain John Collins for the sum of £3275. The mill complex was located beside the site an earlier 18th century mill complex situated south of Belmont Village on the right bank of the River Brosna. The company now traded as Robert Perry & Co., Clara and Belmont Mills but by 1865, Marcus Goodbody controlled all the mills at Clara so that Robert Perry & Co. became exclusively attached to Belmont and thereafter known locally as Belmont Mills or Perry’s Mills. Henry Robert’s brother, Thomas Perry ran the mill at Belmont during the 1860s and acquired full ownership of it in 1878. He converted the adjoining derelict corn and rape mills to an oat mill and a granary. Business was brisk, much of this owing to its advantageous location. Distribution was aided greatly by both the Grand Canal, which connected Dublin with Limerick via the Shannon, and also by the Clara-Banagher railway, which had opened in 1884. There were three major fires at Belmont Mills, the first of which occurred in 1879, the year after Thomas acquired outright ownership of the mill.

Rebuilding commenced immediately and innovative machinery was installed during this time such as ‘roller mills’ as well as the traditional millstones. In 1893 the company was restructured as Robert Perry & Co. Ltd. and upgrading continued. Ernest Perry took over in 1900 on the death of Thomas Perry. A new maize mill was added between 1906-09 for the production of animal feed and a turbine was installed in 1908 to provide electricity to the mill and the village of Belmont. The mill then passed to Wilfred Perry on the death of his brother, Ernest, in 1924. Another disastrous fire in 1925 destroyed the flour and maize mills. Insurance was paid out but after a couple of years, it was rebuilt and re-opened in 1928 under the name Robert Perry & Co. (1927) Ltd. producing flaked maize, wheatmeal, oatmeal, and flaked oatmeal. The mill subsequently passed to Wilfred’s son Philip, who continued to produce oats and animal feed until his death in 1967. His wife continued the business for many years and the oatmeal mill was used to produce ‘Groato’ flaked oatmeal until c.1974. On her death in 1980, their son, David Perry took over the business. In 1982, the mill was devastated by fire for the third time. This time it was not rebuilt, but demolished, except for the granary, which had not been damaged. David Perry began work on the installation of a hydro-power station at the site to generate electricity for the national grid. Animal feed production continued in the maize mill granary and did not cease until 1997 when the entire operation was sold to a new owner, Tom Dolan.

The whiskey production involved its own malting facilities within the distillery. D. E. Williams Ltd. started supplying malt in the 1950s. Together with F. A. Waller & Co. Ltd. the malting plants in Banagher were build. The Midlands Malting Co. Ltd. was incorporated in 1968. The Williams Group held 51% of the shares.
The barley was purchased via Williams-Waller Ltd. - seed fertiliser and grain merchants founded in 1975 in corporation with F. A. Waller. Suppliers were ca. 4000 local farmers.
The company supplied Guinness and additionally exported malt via Irish Malt Exports Ltd. (the Williams Group held 16% of their shares).
Greencore acquired the Williams Group in 1996 and hence the Midlands Malting Co. Ltd.. The closure of the Maltings was announced in 2005.

The Banagher Improvement Committee was involved in the development of public housing, drainage and sanitation, local industries, electricity supply and street lightning, employment schemes, local infrastructure and the revival of Banagher Great Fair.

The Birr War Pensions Committee was established under the national Naval and War Pensions Committee.

Tullamore Town Commission was established in 1860 but no records survive for this body. The Commission became the Urban District Council in 1900 but there are no extant records between 1900 and 1906. The UDC was dissolved in June 2014 following the Local Government Act. Tullamore Municipal District (2014-present) replaces the UDC.

Section 14 of the Agricultural and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899 allowed for the creation of an agriculture committee. Following on from this, the Agriculture Act of 1931 provided the rules for county agriculture committees, including membership, which was to consist of county councillors or partly others, as well as at least one resident member of each county electoral area. Committees of Agriculture were dissolved by Section 30 of the Agriculture, Research, Training and Advice Act, 1988.

The distillery was founded in 1757 by Matthew MacManus, and went through several owners until by 1843 it had been taken over by John Locke who transformed its fortunes. In 1893 it became a limited company. The 20th century saw a decline in profitability and by 1958, the distillery ceased production. In 1982, it re-opened as a whiskey distillery museum following restoration by the Kilbeggan Preservation and Development Association. In 2007 distilling recommenced at Kilbeggan and it is known now as Kilbeggan Distillery.